Digital Signage Doesn’t Need Yet More Software Options, But They Keep Coming Anyway
December 1, 2025 by Dave Haynes
It is endlessly fascinating how more and more digital signage CMS software companies keep popping up in online directories, discussion forums and social media posts.
Guaranteed if you’d ask me 15 years ago if the industry needed more software solutions, I’d have said “No, there’s already a glut.”
But they’ve kept coming – my running theory being that a base system is increasingly easy to build, and with AI and vibe coding now, probably ridiculously easy. I’m not saying the products are necessarily great, but they’re probably serviceable and enough for small business operators who just want to get some marketing messages up in a storefront or lobby, and aren’t fussed about remote management and hyper-security.
When I was putting together last week’s column about Microsoft coming up with a way to hide BSODs, I did a Reddit search looking for comments and opinions within the digital signage community. Didn’t find much, but I did find posts about software.
One of them was an open ask for a solution, and the comments that kicked back were from a pile of different companies all saying, essentially, “Use us!”
And if there were 20, I recognized maybe 2 or 3 of the companies. Now if anyone is going to recognize obscure-ish companies, it’s probably me – given 20 years of editing a trade publication that smart marketers wanted to get visibility on.
There’s some logic to my not recognizing companies focused solely on markets like Russia and, particularly, China. But I saw numerous companies that were in the US and Canada, and I’d never come across their names, or sites.
Then I came across SignageList, which I’m not sure who (doesn’t say) has been compiling for the last seven months or so. It has 529 CMS options listed – from AbleSign to Zynchro (which I have heard of). There’s also a few names in Cyrillic, plus some with numbers … like 22Miles and 4yousee.
There’s 1Glance (I like that handle) and 1Play. And six companies that work Digi into the front-end of their handles.
My friends at invidis – who took over Sixteen:Nine so I could (theoretically) retire – have told me in the past they keep a list that has, I think they said, 3,000 or so companies.
Whatever the number, it’s kooky.
This different list has at least 1,200 entries, but it includes software and hardware and specialties like wayfinding.
The 90:10 Rule
When I have done advisory work for operating companies or, more often, VC and PE people looking to acquire companies and do roll-ups, I have said there are 100s of companies, but maybe 40 or so that are doing the great bulk of the trade.
You’ve heard of the 80:20 rule, but I am thinking it is more 10% of the companies doing 90% of the business. You can be a small guy with a lot of active licenses, but if you are getting $2 a month for each, your overall revenue picture is pretty small. In my experience, investors aren’t all that hyped about businesses that do less than $2-$3 million in annual sales.
I have a lot of affection for these smaller companies, and I tend to gravitate to them at trade shows because I hope they’ve come into the industry with a different twist on doing things. Sometimes, they’re experienced developers who looked at the way “older” solutions were built and presented, and thought they could do something much better using the most modern tools available. These are the companies with tabletop stands in the hallways and at the outer edges of exhibit halls. Quite often, I find they’re delighted when somebody stops and asks semi-intelligent questions and pokes at them on the why and how of what they’re up to. And sometimes they have a platform that has some genuine distinctions, though there’s only so much to be done for the function of getting a list of media files to play on screens one after another.
I also worry about these small companies because this is an industry that relies a lot on top of mind awareness within the ecosystem. I’ve had numerous chats with companies talking about how they are the “best kept secret” in the business, and I’ve uniformly replied: “How’s that working out for you?”
Being a general digital signage solution that markets on the basis of being affordable and easy to use is deadly, because 100s of companies are saying the same damn thing. So winning deals then comes down to factors like serendipity, and how far the vendor will drop their sales pants.
Find Your Thing
My evergreen advice for these small companies. Find your thing, your niche, and go at that hard. Be the best at doing something specific or addressing something specific that has its own scale.
The example I always trot out: First Arriving. This Virginia company does digital signage and digital dashboards for fire and EMS departments.
The pitch: Keep your teams, personnel and visitors up to date with real-time alerts, news, messaging, easy-to-update and automated mission-critical information, 130+ integrations and features, consolidated data visualization and more on a large screen, dedicated platform for fire departments, EMS, police, government. industrial, safety & hospitals.
Love it. They don’t ALSO do retail or workplaces or auto dealers or whatever. They just do situational awareness and crew messaging for first responders. And as far as I know they own that space.
And the company isn’t on this directory, so make it AT LEAST 530 CMS providers!
Granted, it’s not easy to identify a niche and particularly to find one that doesn’t already have competitors chasing it. But in most cases, those companies are probably also chasing 40 other vertical markets.
Have a review of who you work with and see if there are any trends – like a particular segment that seems to gravitate to what you offer.
Example: I had a chat, as a favor, with a UK company whose name genuinely escapes me about their efforts to break through. I asked where they were doing something different, and they mentioned local football (soccer) clubs and grounds.
Just think of ALL the pro, semi-pro and amateur clubs around the UK – below the Premier League and Championship tiers – that have stadiums, food services, retail, offices, training facilities, supporters clubs and pubs, and on and on. There is a lot of potential there for screens, and then you add other sports like rugby and cricket.
I’ve no idea if they went after that (don’t think so). But that’s, I think, the sort of strategy companies of any size should go after.
At a big boy level, Broadsign is my primary reference. That’s a company with a CMS that can service lots of sectors, but from its early days it has focused heavily on digital out of home. And they dominate it.
My last piece of advice: if you are a software developer thinking about developing a digital signage CMS, really, really, really have a think on that before taking the leap. It’s a seriously overcrowded ecosystem.
This has been a public service announcement… Thanks Dave!
Great article and observation, as always! I am 100% about the niches and have been for years. So many of the platforms are by nature wanting the big enterprise accounts with 100s if not thousands of seats. They have tailored the software to cover just about anything anyone would want to do with it, but at an increased cost and added complications. There are hundreds and thousands of small 1-3 location businesses needing a smaller application with corresponding smaller price. What these accounts need is that simple niche software, low monthly cost, easy to navigate and update, with a support structure for content creation and management. Pick that right CMS partner with these attributes and you can sell into thousands of growing markets with small c-store chains, QSRs, and service providers. Next thing you know, you have all of those seats you desire, plus potential added service support contracts.
Dave, you know 22Miles needs to be on the top of every list you see, at least top 22. 😉